Overview

Girls are no less important to gang life than boys. Young women get trapped in cycles of victimization and self-defeating behaviour despite their tough talk to the contrary. This book aims to expose gang life as seen through the eyes of a teen-aged girl named Cara. It provides an account of Cara's life as a member of a Kansas city gang, the Fremont Hustlers. Drugs and guns, shootings and assaults, boyfriends and pregnancies, ratty apartments, broken-down cars, minimum wage jobs, strained relationships with family and peers, dodging the police and praying for peace fill her days. The book describes in detail the social and economic pressure on Cara and fellow gang members whose lives were shaped by poverty, family disorganization and parental neglect.

Full Product Details

9780299158804

Table of Contents

Reviews

Most of society has given up on these girls. Dead End Kids shows us why this is a tragic mistake. --Elizabeth Mehren, national correspondent, Los Angeles Times I recommend it to all who want to understand the dynamics of inner-city life and the reasons that current crime and poverty programs cannot succeed. If middle-class America could digest its core ideas, dramatic changes in policy might result. --Jim Quinn, Law and Politics Book Review Fleisher aptly describes the economic and social pressures that contribute to gang formation, youth violence, teen pregnancy, and other social ills plaguing U.S. cities. --Vanessa Bush, Booklist A lively, compelling tale of urban misery and dashed hope, Fleisher's work humanizes gang girls and identifies the psychological, cultural, and social forces that condemn the distaff side of America's [gangs] to their dead-end lives. --Donna Gaines, Village Voice Literary Supplement Dead End Kids is an important and exceptional study. Anyone who cares about young people should read it and feel compelled to take action. --Jody Miller, Chicago Tribune Most of society has given up on these girls. Dead End Kids shows us why this is a tragic mistake. Elizabeth Mehren, national correspondent, Los Angeles Times I recommend it to all who want to understand the dynamics of inner-city life and the reasons that current crime and poverty programs cannot succeed. If middle-class America could digest its core ideas, dramatic changes in policy might result. Jim Quinn, Law and Politics Book Review Fleisher aptly describes the economic and social pressures that contribute to gang formation, youth violence, teen pregnancy, and other social ills plaguing U.S. cities. Vanessa Bush, Booklist A lively, compelling tale of urban misery and dashed hope, Fleisher s work humanizes gang girls and identifies the psychological, cultural, and social forces that condemn the distaff side of America s [gangs] to their dead-end lives. Donna Gaines, Village Voice Literary Supplement Dead End Kids is an important and exceptional study. Anyone who cares about young people should read it and feel compelled to take action. Jody Miller, Chicago Tribune

"""Dead End Kids is an important and exceptional study. Anyone who cares about young people should read it and feel compelled to take action.""--Jody Miller, Chicago Tribune ""A lively, compelling tale of urban misery and dashed hope, Fleisher's work humanizes gang girls and identifies the psychological, cultural, and social forces that condemn the distaff side of America's [gangs] to their dead-end lives.""--Donna Gaines, Village Voice Literary Supplement ""Fleisher aptly describes the economic and social pressures that contribute to gang formation, youth violence, teen pregnancy, and other social ills plaguing U.S. cities.""--Vanessa Bush, Booklist ""I recommend it to all who want to understand the dynamics of inner-city life and the reasons that current crime and poverty programs cannot succeed. If middle-class America could digest its core ideas, dramatic changes in policy might result.""--Jim Quinn, Law and Politics Book Review ""Most of society has given up on these girls. Dead End Kids shows us why this is a tragic mistake.""--Elizabeth Mehren, national correspondent, Los Angeles Times"

Dead End Kids is an important and exceptional study. Anyone who cares about young people should read it and feel compelled to take action. Jody Miller, Chicago Tribune A lively, compelling tale of urban misery and dashed hope, Fleisher s work humanizes gang girls and identifies the psychological, cultural, and social forces that condemn the distaff side of America s [gangs] to their dead-end lives. Donna Gaines, Village Voice Literary Supplement Fleisher aptly describes the economic and social pressures that contribute to gang formation, youth violence, teen pregnancy, and other social ills plaguing U.S. cities. Vanessa Bush, Booklist I recommend it to all who want to understand the dynamics of inner-city life and the reasons that current crime and poverty programs cannot succeed. If middle-class America could digest its core ideas, dramatic changes in policy might result. Jim Quinn, Law and Politics Book Review Most of society has given up on these girls. Dead End Kids shows us why this is a tragic mistake. Elizabeth Mehren, national correspondent, Los Angeles Times Dead End Kids is an important and exceptional study. Anyone who cares about young people should read it and feel compelled to take action. --Jody Miller, Chicago Tribune A lively, compelling tale of urban misery and dashed hope, Fleisher's work humanizes gang girls and identifies the psychological, cultural, and social forces that condemn the distaff side of America's [gangs] to their dead-end lives. --Donna Gaines, Village Voice Literary Supplement Fleisher aptly describes the economic and social pressures that contribute to gang formation, youth violence, teen pregnancy, and other social ills plaguing U.S. cities. --Vanessa Bush, Booklist I recommend it to all who want to understand the dynamics of inner-city life and the reasons that current crime and poverty programs cannot succeed. If middle-class America could digest its core ideas, dramatic changes in policy might result. --Jim Quinn, Law and Politics Book Review Most of society has given up on these girls. Dead End Kids shows us why this is a tragic mistake. --Elizabeth Mehren, national correspondent, Los Angeles Times

<p> I recommend it to all who want to understand the dynamics of inner-city life and the reasons that current crime and poverty programs cannot succeed. If middle-class America could digest its core ideas, dramatic changes in policy might result. --Jim Quinn, Law and Politics Book Review

Author Information

Mark S. Fleisher is a cultural anthropologist and criminal ethnographer, a former administrator in the Federal Bureau of Prisons, and an associate professor of criminal justice sciences at Illinois State University. He is the author of the award-winning Beggars and Thieves: Lives of Urban Street Criminals, published by the University of Wisconsin Press, and of Warehousing Violence.

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